By Abu Yaasir*
Bismillah Irrahman Irrahim
In the Name of Allah the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful
Herewith I would like to refer to the article written by Andreas Banoutsos ‘Radical Dawah online in Greece’ and his accusations against the Salafi Dawah in Athens.
Mr Banoutsos is an unknown figure to the world of Islamic Research, however he has taken it upon him to analyse Islamic Dawah activities in Greece and to categorize Muslims into groups and movements. I am one of the people he is referring to and is accusing of radicalization of Greek Muslims. We have never met each other; he has never made an interview or approached me to ask me about the things he is accusing me of. Neither has he approached any of the other brothers he is accusing of extremism (Hamza, Stathis Tsiounis, Ahmed Eldin).
Banoutsos starts his article with ‘their message is peaceful and there is no threat of violence’, but goes on with ‘however in the long term this message can gradually harm social cohesion, undermine certain fundamental human rights and subvert the Western democratic legal order.’
Firstly Mr. Banoutsos, what is the message? Why can this message harm social cohesion? What fundamental human rights are undermined? Why should it subvert the Western democratic legal order? Where is the proof for all these accusations? Most importantly of all, are you a magician or a fortune-teller who can look into the future?
Furthermore, Banoutsos talks about 1,500 members of the Muslim association ‘El-Rahman’ who are supposed to be ‘mainly Greek converts to Islam’. My friend, if we had 1,500 Greek Muslims in Athens in one association alone, no Greek would wonder about how a Greek can be both Greek and Muslim. This subject is taboo in Greek society and you know it yourself, too! You also know that the number of Greek Muslims is still very small, but what he is doing here is, exaggerating in order to put fear in people’s heart, the same he did in the introduction and the same he actually does throughout the entire text.
Banoutsos makes the association seem as if it was a mafia organisation with a founder Mohidin and ‘the brain’ Ahmed Eldin, who is supposedly leading the radical dawah activity online in order to exploit the great advantages of the Internet. How genius, isn’t it? We, radical Muslims are really genius people; we have discovered the Internet. So, we are not so backwards any more, nowadays we are technologically advanced. Amazing, how a stereotype can change so quickly!
I must admit, Banoutsos is an excellent writer of detective stories (honestly, you should think about it) because he goes on in his article and now tells the readers the story of two Greek converts (by the way, my name is NOT Abu Jassir, but Abu Yaasir) who are ‘following the Salafi-Wahhabi strand of Islam’. This is really great, now we are Salafi-Wahhabis, not Salafi not Wahhabi but both together! It’s honestly great to see how they are inventing names for us. I mean, they are used to doing this: Muhammadans instead of Muslims, Wahhabi instead of Salafi etc.
The article becomes even more entertaining: Banoutsos dedicates two paragraphs to the dawah activities of our brother Stathis Tsiounis (Abu Alia) in Bosnia-Herzegovina and uses the Present Perfect Continuous, which indicates that there have been continuous activities from Abu Alia’s side in Bosnia. I know Abu Alia very well and know that he has only been once to Bosnia to speak publicly and to talk about his conversion to Islam!
Dear Mr. Banoutsos, Islamic dawah means to inform people about Islam and their duties towards Allah. We include both Muslims as well as Non-Muslims alike! So, what exactly is wrong with Abu Alia mentioning that ‘60% of Bosnians do not pray, 70% of the women do not cover themselves and 90% of Bosnians drink alcohol’?
Banoutsos refers to the term Wahhabism and calls it ‘extremist, puritanical and intolerant’ straight after he quotes Abu Alia. He even connects it with Saudi Arabia and its financial support all over the world, and comes to his main point: the connection between the Dawah and Osamah Bin Laden or Al-Qaeda. Thus, he connects all these names and terminologies with the element of terror, which everybody fears and creates once again fear in the readers’ hearts. Banoutsos throws around with another invented word ‘neo-Wahhabism’ and connects extremism, radicalization, the Saudi state, Osamah Bin Laden/AlQaeda with our Dawah and puts terror in the average reader’s heart. Like this the reader of the article thinks that we are supporting Bin Laden’s unislamic ideology, get sponsored by the Saudis and are intolerant towards other religions, specifically towards Greek society. This method of lying and spreading false rumours about our dawah is not new and not Greek. The same method they are using in Germany, in the UK, in the US and in France.
THEY are the hostile element in society. THEY create terror and fear in people’s heart and they invent lies about us! Andreas Banoutsos is doing their work in Greece although he is not even living there. He is living in London and is a university student!
He mentions that our website islamforgreeks.org ‘is designed to appeal to Greek converts, which he considers ‘dangerous’. Where exactly is there the danger in calling people to as he states himself ‘the concept of Tawhid, the doctrine of the Oneness of God’ (Allah)? The writer himself says that ‘central to Wahhabism is the concept of Tawhid’. He contradicts himself with everything he said earlier and with the statement that we are dangerous. We have no interest in state affairs and in changing the Greek legal order. We are interested in getting rid of Greek society’s misconceptions and distortions of Islam and we are very clear about our aims, clearer than you are!
Last but not least, I will have to mention the ridiculous accusation of a ‘coalition’ between Islam and the extreme-right activist Costas Plevris, who states that ‘Islam is philhellenism’ and that ‘Islam is a friendly religion to Greek people’. Islam is a friendly religion to ALL people and putting Plevris on our website was supposed to show that even these extremist elements have realised that Islam is positive!
Banoutsos shows also some historic knowledge and mentions the fact that the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and Adolf Hitler cooperated during WW II; a fact which has nothing to do with everything stated previously within this article. We all know that the right-wing elements in Western societies are the main forces behind Islamophobia and Racism. Does anybody out there seriously think that we would be able to ally with them?
Finally, the article comes to a more ridiculous ending, summarizing the writer’s try to ‘expose the radical dawah activity’ which according to his own words is ‘nonviolent’ and ‘peaceful’. He refers to other Western European countries that experienced violence but does not mention any example or what he exactly means. He makes sure that people are not too comfortable with our dawah and remarks that ‘even if this radicalization will not result into violent extremism, it still poses a long term threat to the Greek democratic legal order, since Salafi-Wahhabis desire to impose a separate form of justice…’. Although he knows that we have spoken out against terrorism and against any form of violence he continuous putting fear in the hearts of the readers and to spread terror. This is actually an illegal act and we, Association El-Rehman and myself (Abu Yaasir), invite Andreas Banoutsos (if he is Man enough) to talk to us directly, justify his article and to explain the accusations!
Our website is islamforgreeks.org, the email address can be found there; every Thursday 9.30 pm Greek time (7.30 pm British time) we have our Paltalk room under Europe and we conduct our seminars. So, if you think you are Man enough to face us, either in English or in Greek, we challenge you to come!!!
*Abu Yaasir (MA, PhD in Political Science / Romance Linguistics / International Technical Development, University of Aachen/Germany + University of Cambridge/UK)
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